1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to digital video compression, and, in particular, to rate control for digital video compression processing conforming to the MPEG2 video standard.
2. Description of the Related Art
In digital video compression, the video encoder typically attempts to maintain uniform video quality throughout the video sequence, since changes in video quality result in a poor viewing experience. Constant viewing quality for a given bit-rate is in general the main goal of a rate-control algorithm.
The MPEG2 (Motion Picture Experts Group 2) video committee released the TM5 (Test Model 5) video encoder software model for the MPEG2 digital video compression standard. See ISO-IEC/JTC1/SC29/WG11/N0400, “Coded representation of picture and audio information—MPEG2 Test Model 5 (version 2), April 1993, and ISO/IEC 13818-2, “Information Technology—Generic Coding of Moving Pictures and Associated Audio Information: Video,” 2000, the teachings of both of which are incorporated herein by reference. It is well known that TM5 rate control has several deficiencies. The main reason for its release by the MPEG2 video committee was to exemplify how rate control could be achieved for video sources.